Masterpieces

San Diego Art Masterpieces

Historic moment: A film premiering here Tuesday night includes cameos by actor Blair Underwood and basketball superstar Bill Walton. But the movie’s star is the 1,200-acre park in the heart of downtown. The 30-minute documentary, “Balboa Park: The Jewel of San Diego,” has been many years in the planning by the San Diego History Center and six months in production. It was made possible by an influx of private donations ...

“This is probably the most famous modern Navajo blanket in existence,” declared H.K. Raymenton, collector and two-time board president of the San Diego Museum of Man, when he donated it to the collection in 1959. “It was made (famous) by Dr. George Wharton James, the noted authority on the Southwest,” who documented it his 1914 book “Indian Blankets and Their Makers.” A lecturer and author on Southwest and California cultures, James was taken by this ...